I recently received an email with some discussion on choosing the right time to move away from Furor and into Genesis. I think that this is a really good discussion point, and as more players start approaching hard mode content and changes in their gear, it’s something that a lot of people are going to start considering. As such, I though it would be beneficial to go ahead and share the response that I provided to the Furor vs. Genesis question with everyone, and not keep it limited to my original reply. And while I have my opinion on it (always!), I also think that it would be interesting to get other perspectives on the topic to provide a larger array of feedback for those debating which spec would be right for them.

Question

What I’m looking at now is when is the right time to back away from Furor and take points in Genesis. I’ve looked at specs from a large variety of druids in HM progression and while a chunk of them are still running 2 points in furor, there are a growing number running 2/3 genesis and some even running 3/3 genesis. … I am curious have you tried the Genesis build yet or have you given it some thought? I’m trying to estimate how much of a lifestyle change it would be to not have that 10% mana boost in favor of throughput.

My Answer

I am not sure there is a “right” or “wrong” answer as to which is better, as I think that they are both very viable specs. I do think, however, that it’s going to be very player centric and the mileage that you will get from it will vary from player to player. If you are just starting heroics, I would probably discourage a switch away from furor just yet, as you probably don’t have the gear yet that would allow you to compensate for the loss of the extra mana. As your gear increases, your stats will increase, and eventually your gear has the potential to reach a point where you really just don’t need the extra mana. However, the damage ramp-up in every heroic encounter that I’ve done to date requires a significant step up in healing. And I can’t think of a single encounter where I’ve not finished near bone dry, utilizing innervate on cooldown and a mana pot every fight. I’ve not looked, but I would wager that most of the people from EJ that you’ve armoried running a Genesis spec are probably in at least half 372 gear.

I think some of it will also depend on your healing assignment, as well as your healing style. Regardless of what my assignment is, I am a very aggressive healer. The way we work assignments is to say “this is your priority, and anything else you can do without failing your priority you can and should”. So we are pretty loose with them. It works for us. However, because we run our raids with 2-3 resto druids, I am almost always raid healing. Which means that I tend to really burn through mana during burst damage phases in an encounter due to our somewhat limited tools. In my mind I think it’s very tricky to weigh out the value of 4/6% more throughput vs. having the ability to cast more spells. I’m not entirely certain that any equation can be run to quantify a “better” result. I think that if you still run out of mana every encounter, you probably want to stick with Furor. If you are still learning an encounter and aren’t sure what to expect, you probably want to stick with Furor. If you have farm content where you find that you aren’t running dry, you have no need for a potion, and aren’t frantically panicking for your innervate to come off cooldown (you know what I’m talking about!) – try forgoing furor and play with Genesis.

A lot of it, I think, will also depend on the strength of the other healers in your guild and how aggressive you have to be with some of your healing. If you have other really strong healers, and you are all very close to each other output wise, you may have a little more wiggle room to play around with your mana for a pure throughput boost. However, if you are a very strong healer amongst mostly weaker healers I’d definitely ask yourself if you can afford to potentially cast less just to have bigger heals. You may find that the answer for you is “no”, in which case Furor is probably going to be a better choice. But if your other healers are really strong, and you aren’t concerned that you may have to be slightly more conservative in some of your spell options, then Genesis might play out better, even in the early heroic gear stages.

For me, I don’t think I’m quite at a point that I can forgo Furor. I tried a spec without it a few weeks ago, and hated it. I raided with it for a week and I absolutely felt the mana pinch and I felt that my healing was weaker as a result. By the end of most encounters I was so dry that I couldn’t cast. To me, that just wasn’t worth it. Since then I’ve picked up a few pieces of heroic gear and I’ve added a bit more spirit to my stat weightings, but I think I’d still be hesitant to give up Furor just yet. That isn’t to say that maybe after a few more upgrades I wouldn’t try it again, it’s just that I’m already running out of mana in almost every encounter, and I’m worried that would only be exacerbated if I dropped Furor.

I guess, in short, what I’m trying to say is that I think the decision to give up Furor for Genesis is going to be unique to each player. I think probably the closest answer I could give for when it’s “right” to make the change is to say that if you are ending every encounter more than 30% mana, and you are being as aggressive as you can with your healing, it’s probably the time to consider swapping over to Genesis. Until then, it would probably be my recommendation to stay with Furor!

Does anyone else have other experiences with Furor/Genesis that they’d like to share? I’d love to hear how others are dealing with their mana, gear, and spec as this tier of content pushes forward!

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10 responses to “Mailbag: Furor vs. Genesis”

I actually specced out of furor when the 4.0.6 changes went through because I wanted to see how comfortable I felt. I ran a heroic and ended up switching right back before even TESTING it in raid, and I’m glad I did.

We’re currently doing hard-mode progression (3/12 I think) and if nothing else, having the extra mana to fall back on when learning the encounter is a god-send as people constantly stand in bad stuff or find that a mechanic didn’t work as they intended.

While you may be able to make the change, I think it would be highly dependent on your healing team, as well as how quickly you upgraded gear–running in an almost full Tier11 kit, I am still using every ounce of mana I can scrounge up!

Hey…new reader and first time poster here (but long time resto druid!)

I will start with the disclaimer that my guild is only 10/12 and my gear is 359 ilvl…but I got the overconfident bug running our farm content last week. I already top the healing meters in our guild and had been sharing my innervate with other healers sine my mana was good so I decided to “take off my training wheels” and ride the big boy bike of genesis.

The next raid I was mana starved and hated life.

This is not to say that it wasn’t manageable…but if you are used to playing with 15% extra mana (assuming 100k mana pool, 15k extra mana is a significant number of casts) then you are used to casting the number of spells that mana pool affords. Sadly your style won’t change as fast as your talent tree…so regardless of gear/healing team I think running heroics and farm raid content in that spec a few times first to get a feel for your mana use (healers know what I mean by this anomalous “feel”) will be crucial.

But for those out there with about 359 ilvl…keep the furor! We druids have to roll HoTs…more HoTs is more better!

I’m only 8/12 in normals (just recently found a talented group to run with so hopefully we’ll get into heroics somewhat soon) so my opinion on this doesn’t matter as much. Anyway I used the standard 8/2/31 build until at one point I was running with 120k mana buffed (in a 5-man mind you!).

So last week I moved a point from furor into genesis and it was a great move. I don’t normally see druids with only 1/3 furor but thought I’d try it anyway. I’ve seen an increase in my healing without it hurting my mana regen. At the same time it’s also helping me to not overheal as much and treat my mana as a limited precious resource.

Obviously this won’t work when we start heroics but maybe one of your readers is in the same stage of progression as me :D

I had the same experience. Tried out dropping Furor for Genesis after obtaining my 4-piece bonus. I gave it a full lockout, but decided it definitely wasn’t time for me just yet. Between the lower manapool and weaker innervates/revitalize/replenishment, I felt a big pinch on mana. The nail in the coffin was my inability to immediately Stampeding Roar in a clutch moment due to insufficient energy, resulting in a player death.

Dear Beruthiel!
I’m using 10/0/31 for 2 weeks. I’m 6/13 in hard modes, half 372 gear. From my side mana is ok without Furor.
Good timing with Innervate (proc weapon enchant) and use the Engineering ability (intellect buff) make my Innervate so strong. I’m using it on the second weapon proc for the first (if I have > 80% mana pool, I’m using glyphed Innervate on other healers).

I dropped Furor and all but 1 point in Moonglow after 4.0.6 to put full points in Genesis. I really like it. My raid is not working on hard modes yet (this week!) and my gear isn’t that great (leather is a myth), but with well-timed Innervates and a mana pot, I haven’t had too many problems going oom.

I haven’t run furor at all since Cata’s release, except a brief interlude where I tried to spec into it and after a heroic 5-man, decided I liked Moonglow better.

I am 2/3 Gen and 3/3 Moonglow, with 0/3 furor and 1/3 efflorescence. I actually took points out of Effloresence to give me my Genesis, because as a 10’s healer, Eff wasn’t hitting very many people and I preferred to boost all of my HoTs with Genesis: a change I made around the time of killing Nefarian and Cho’Gall and Al’Akir on normal modes. I tank heal quite a bit and our raid size limits the likelihood of maximizing the people healed with Efflorescence, so it was a good choice for me.

Could I go 3/3 moonglow and 2/3 furor? Sure, it’s an option I keep in the back of my head as we progress through heroics, just in case going OoM over throughput does become a problem. It was something I was considering for H-Chim, but at the same time, throughput is a major issue. If the raid isn’t getting healed up fast enough, there will be deaths, and then your mana pool doesn’t matter anymore. It’s a difficult balance. I chug mana pots and keep my innervates for myself, timing them for power torrent, etc, but I have never raided with furor in my spec and we’re currently 2/13 hardmodes. Other things to consider are what mana-returns you can expect from the rest of the raid in terms of mana tide and hymn, or an innervate from a feral druid.

So I guess my point is this:
Sometimes it’s not the number of spells you cast that saves the raid, but the effectiveness of those spells that you DO cast.

I’m honestly, and literally, finding myself completely out of mana on progression encounters. For me, the extra mana in those circumstanes is greater than the small throughput boost. However – I also work with a 6-8 person healing team, so that might make a difference in my choices as well. At some point, I do think that my gear with eclipse the benefits I gain from Furor – but I don’t think I’m quite there yet.

As I said, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer, and the choice should be very player centric. If you can work effectively without Furor, go for it! If you can’t, hold off on trying to move into Genesis for awhile :)

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